If you love dumplings but cannot find suet to make your own, try this easy beautiful Jamie Oliver dumplings recipe using flour as a substitute for suet. What’s more is that this recipe can also be enjoyed by the vegetarians among us.

Living outside of our native homeland has some great advantages, after all that’s why we made the move in the first place. There is however some drawbacks for us expats who miss some of our favourite foods from home. The main problem can be in finding the right ingredients in our adopted land where we can no longer take for granted the ease of finding everything we love which sat before us on our local supermarket shelves.

The good news is that many of the foods we long for can be made at home by simply substituting some of the key ingredients with a good alternative. We have sourced (and tested) some of these recipes and over the coming weeks we will bring some amazing new recipes using simple ingredients which are widely available in Bulgaria.The original Jamie Oliver recipe for dumplings from Jamie's 15-Minute Meals can be made using this dumpling recipe however we have made some slight changes in the quantity and the use of margarine for a vegetarian option rather than butter.

Method;In a mixing bowl add the sieved flour and add the baking powder, salt and pepper, mix together well.Add the butter or margarine and rub in well with the flour until the ingredients resemble bread crumbs.At this stage add a little cold water at a time and knead the dough until it forms a ball which has elasticity. The dough should ideally be not too sticky.The dough can now be separated in to approx 10 equally sized golf ball pieces shaped by rolling them between the hands.

The dumplings are now ready to be added to your soup, casserole, stew or for a twist to a Bulgarian dish; they can be added to a kavarma or hotchpotch.Keep each raw dumpling away from each other to allow for their expansion whilst cooking. Push each dumpling into the sauce until they are 50% submerged. They can be cooked uncovered or covered for around 30 minutes. It is best however to cook them covered for at least 15 minutes and if you prefer to brown the dumplings, they can be left uncovered for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

So there you have our quick and easy version of a recipe for Jamie Oliver dumplings for expats. Enjoy!